part 2] mosquitoes in the British museum. 147 



America into Australia ; the subgenus Fiiilaya is cosmopolitan, 

 with its centre in the Indo-Malayan region. (2) In the second 

 group there are no claspettes, and the claspers are generally better 

 developed, more highly chitinized, of greater functional import- 

 ance and specific diversity. This group is characteristic of the 

 tropics of the Old World (Oriental and Ethiopian regions) ; several 

 subgenera occur which are interrelated in a complex manner. 



The strongly developed claspers and the apparent absence of 

 claspettes of the male A. protolepis show that this species almost 

 certainly belongs to the second group, although it cannot be 

 referred exactly to any modern subgenus. The stumpy abdomen 

 and short hypopygium of the male are suggestive of Aedes in the 

 restricted sense, although the male palpi are those of Aedimorphus 

 \JEcculex~\. The large eighth segment of the female, together 

 with the well-developed cerci, are suggestive of either Aedes or 

 Armigeres. 



There is only one representative of the second group of Aedes 

 .at present occurring in Britain {A. vexans Meigen). It is 

 probable, therefore, that A. protolepis should be regarded as 

 evidence of the existence of an Oriental or Ethiopian type of 

 Culicid fauna in these islands in early Tertiary times. This, of 

 course, is entirely in accord with the general evidence afforded 

 by fossils of other groups. Unfortunately, the fossils provide no 

 evidence as to the time or place of origin of the present Palsearctic 

 fauna, which may or may not have existed here in the Oligocene 

 Period. 



Aedes (?) sp. 



One male specimen (I. 10261) apparently represents a species 

 distinct from A. protolepis, since the palpi are (unless broken) a 

 little shorter than the proboscis, and distinctly more hairy than in 

 any undoubted A. protolepis. They resemble the palpi of 1. 10272 

 (regarded as Gulex protorhinics), but the specimen is much 

 smaller than any of those described under this name. The tip of 

 the abdomen is missing. The specimen is of interest, because it 

 shows veiy distinctly the hair-scars on the abdominal tergites, 

 and also minute densely crowded punctures on the sternites which 

 may represent the points of attachment of the scales. Apart 

 from this example, I have seen no clear evidence of the existence 

 of abdominal scales, although I have mounted scraps of the actual 

 abdominal integument and examined them under a high power. 

 It is, however, certain from the appearances on some of the fossils 

 that the palpi and legs bore scales, and it may therefore be 

 regarded as probable that these were carried by the abdomen also. 

 Most of the Lepidopterous wings in the collection are perfectly 

 denuded, and show no trace of scaling. 



